


Stones

by Milana16



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: And angst, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Merman!AU, More Fluff, blink and you miss it drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 08:28:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13994406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milana16/pseuds/Milana16
Summary: The seashores at the dawn were one of his favorite sights, Eiji mused, looking over the scarlet-blue waves, and smiled, seeing that he wasn’t the only one enjoying it.In which Golden Pair isn't even the same species and still manage to be adorable dorks. I swear Shape of Water has nothing to do with the boys.





	Stones

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to post it after all?  
> Greatly (actually, completely) inspired by a certain [old art of Headfangs](http://headfangs.tumblr.com/post/142302484535/consider-merman-oishi-he-got-caught-in-a-net-like) on Tumblr, and my muse didn't left me before finishing the bigger part of it, so I told her 'screw you' and decided to reach some kind of point and publish it. I have a bit more of that but for now, the polished part is this one.
> 
> Not betaed, and not Konomi Takeshi approved, and as such, disclaimer applies.

The seashores at the dawn were one of his favorite sights, Eiji mused, looking over the scarlet-blue waves, and smiled, seeing that he wasn’t the only one enjoying it. Two slim shapes danced on the waves, chirping happily; they were dolphin-like, but at the same time, much more elongated. If it was anybody but Eiji seeing them, he’d assume he was discovering new species from the dolphinae family.

Eiji knew it wasn’t quite true.

When two silhouettes froze, seemingly noticing him, he put hands to his mouth and whistled a soft tune. The chirping returned doubled in power and Eiji chuckled, before continuing on his way, noticing two shapes suddenly disappearing underwater. He picked up his speed, walking over the sand doing nothing to slow him down in his excitement; besides, he has been walking like that for more than half his life-living in a fisherman village had its perks…

The second the ground became rockier, he took sharp turn to the left, jumping over the incoming wave straight onto the oval stone, perking from the water only during the just-before the sea tide’s rising time, and then slipping off his boots and jumping over to the next stone and into the shallow water behind it, landing with a gleeful splash. If he looked behind himself, he might have noticed how far those two leaps had taken him from the shore, but then again, he knew it by heart now- studies in a faraway university didn’t  erase his most consistent memory, or rather, he refused to let them be erased.

He continued to move in the water, slowly coming over the top of underwater dune with a comb of seemingly sharp stone teeth. He slipped into the slit that seemed unreachable by human and thanked his slim posture, before moving  hair from his eyes, checking on a sketchbook tucked safely under his arm, and moving to the lagoon the stone teeth guarded from human sight.

It was dreamlike, really. Because of the long arms of sand and stone embracing it, none of the sea rubbish landed in there, making the water above white sand a lazure mirror. The sand on the beach at the first sight looked like it was identical white as the one under water surface, but once you looked closer, the white changed into a white sky of rainbow glitters. Even the stones going into the water seemed brighter than the ones outside the lagoon, but redhead didn’t seem fazed by it. Not just yet.

Leaving his boots at the border of rocks and white sand he stepped forward and onto a bridge like stone, then the next one and next, until he wasn’t standing at the end of the white road in the middle of the blue water. Watching out for the sketchbook, he kneeled down slowly, though his every move must’ve betrayed his excitement by now, and looked down into blue mirror.

A face with sparkling eyes, bright red head and a bandaid on right cheek grinned at him from below, and he snorted at how stupidly happy he looked. But then again, it has been months since he last had a chance to come here, and now that the finals were over and he was back to his hometown for more “inspiration”-

His thoughts somehow made him miss the sudden change in the look of the face looking down from below him, facial shape rounding out, blue eyes changing to green, and the sudden touch of wetness and warmth on his lips startled him, before just as wet and as warm hand didn’t come up to put his hair behind his ear and caress his neck.

Later, he’ll probably wonder how his partner could manage to keep this warm underwater, but for now, he closed his eyes and melted into the contact he missed so much.

He kept his eyes closed shortly after parting, at least until he didn’t hear the soft, sing-song tune; he loved the sound of his name in water language.

He raised his hand and pulled at the bandaid on his cheek, unveiling the patch of pale skin along with a small gold tattoo-like pattern of the scales, and all of sudden, the thrill got replaced by the words.

‘-elcome home, Eiji.’ Said the same voice as before and Eiji looked into green eyes with a smile, before backing away and making place for the other being, taking him in at the same time.

‘I’m back, Oishi.’

It was a male, with skin darker than him, muscular but still slim torso and obviously strong hands. Round head was decorated with now wet black short hair, two streaks of it comically falling down the man’s forehead, creating black crescents Eiji lost no time pulling at, making blackhead laugh as his lower body partially came out of the water, exhibiting smooth surface of greenish scales speckled with blue dots. A strong tailfin with orange-gold hues splashed the water once, before settling underneath it as blackhead caught his balance on the stone.

A merman looked at his redheaded partner with face of utter adoration, signallising he was just fine sitting there and having him beside. Eiji doubted they will stay like that for long, so why wait for silence to break?

‘I missed you.’  He said, and blackhead expression warmed up even more.

‘I missed you too. We all did actually.’ He answered before chuckling. ‘You should have seen Rika and Hongo’s reactions underwater, I thought they’d create another whirlpool for which Tezuka will have them swimming laps.’

Eiji chuckled. He still didn’t quite catch how merpeople evolved from elongated dolphin-like creatures into half people, but their children definitely shared some traits of cute puppies and children alike. Oishi’s little sister and her friend seemed especially fond of him, and he felt almost as sorry for leaving them as he felt for leaving Oishi to go to his college, but then again, becoming an artist had been his longtime dream, plus it gave him an excuse to be weird-which in turn meant he could spend more time with Oishi. Which reminded him.

‘I’ve finished my finals, Oishi.’ He said and blackhead blinked once, before his eyes shot to the sketchbook, and Eiji’s smile widened.

Trust merman to remember even their smallest promises.

‘Does that mean-?’

‘Go ahead, nya.’ Eiji encouraged blackhead, picking up the thing and offering it to the merman who took and opened it with utter respect.

He would start from the first page, and Eiji knew each and every of the pictures he drew in the book, so he opted for observing and trying to decrypt Oishi’s expressions.

Merman looked through the pages of the sketchbook with shining eyes; it was actually a compilation that gave Eiji an opinion of a dream-artist, and allowed him to pass with high grades and fair amount of savings coming from the exhibition of his works in the annual event, and also a job as a fantasy card designer.

‘Is this all-?’ Oishi started, looking up at him, and Eiji risked quick look over merman’s shoulder, not so subtly leaning over him. The upper torso was already dry and warm.

‘Yeah, a little bit changed, so people don’t recognize any of the places, but most of them are from your sister’s playtime, and our trips.’ He sent a wide grin to a stunned blackhead. ‘I have quite good eye and memory, don’t I?’

‘Yeah, you do, but…’Oishi hesitated, before pointing to a silhouette in center of the picture. ‘I’m sure I don’t look this…’

‘Gorgeous? Yeah, you do.’ Eiji offhandedly informed him, making merman blush. ‘I had to lie I don’t remember the face I “dreamed of” which is a pity, since it’d look even better; I’m still quite proud of it, though, so..’

‘Eiji!’ he was cut off, before blackhead didn’t lean his head up to kiss him. ‘It’s perfect the way it is. You know we cannot be shown to other people. Not just yet.’

‘Yeah I know.’ Eiji sighed, before mumbling. ‘A pity, but also I don’t have to share.’

‘You’d never have to.’ Oishi assured with a smile, before adding. ‘More than you already do, at the very least.’

‘Good for me, nya.’ Eiji relaxed back, this time openly snuggling into merman’s side. ‘You might not like the next one, though…’

‘I’m sure I’d love it, if it was made by you.’

‘Well, but you might not like the topic.’ Eiji said with a hint of fragility. ‘It actually got used for the anti-water debris campaign…’

Oishi turned page and choked.

‘You’ve had to use that memory, too?’ he asked weakly. Eiji closed his eyes as if that would hide him from slightest of slight reproaches.

‘I told you, it was used for saving the sea, so I thought it would be fine, even if a little bit.’

‘Well, true, but-‘ Oishi looked back to the controversial picture. Once more, the central figure was a merman with his face hidden from the viewer, but this time, his whole body conveyed his fear. The reason might have lied in the nets embracing his wrist and lower arms in a restricting manner, as well as his tail locked in between poles with straps of dirty cloth additionally restricting it’s movements.

‘You’re really good at recreating the scenes.’ He finally said, carefully tracing his fingers over the drawing, as if scared the nets would become real and trap him…again. ‘I’m pretty sure you’ve gotten to me once I’ve already released my tail.’

‘Well, yeah, but it wasn’t hard to imagine how you’ve hurt it, coming from the scratches, and all the scales around it.’ Eiji paused before looking up at him. ‘Are you angry?’

‘More like surprised you remembered everything so well.’ Oishi returned the look with a shaky smile. ‘To me it blurs into a whirlpool of fear and pain and then you’re just there.’

Eiji huffed.

‘I don’t blame you, but it was our first meeting nya! How was I supposed to forget it?!’

‘I’d prefer you did forget it, though…’

‘No way! It was the first time you’ve kissed me, too! I’m not forgetting my first kiss, nya!’

‘It was only on the cheek.’ Oishi argued weakly, not really aiming at winning this banter.

‘It was. My first. Kiss.’ Eiji emphasized, looking at merman with blazing eyes, and Oishi sighed before with a smile leaning over and giving what Eiji called the Next First Kiss of Many.

‘There, there. I’m just…a little bit uncomfortable being reminded how foolish I was.’

‘It was our fault anyway.’ Eiji almost instantly replied scooting over and leaning against merman’s shoulder comfortingly. ‘Plus, you still looked kinda cool.’

‘And I’ve met you, so it was not that bad.’ Oishi gave up, for which he  was instantly rewarded by weird but cute purr-like sound Eiji made every time something pleased him. It always helped to keep terror of the memory  _before_  Eiji came, and  _before_  he knew not all humans are absolute evil, at a bay. He didn’t want Eiji to know that fear… not that he managed to keep the boy away from it.

*

_Redhead, arms raised, eyes focused on that dark point the barrel gun must_ _’ve changed from his perspective, in a shaky voice calling out to him, to go back into the sea and to never come back here._

_His little sister’s frantic cries, as her savior is being held at a gunpoint by one of his own kind, helpless._

_Oishi’s fear, for he feels his heart beating double, as if it wasn’t just one organ, and he knows, knows so very well, that if the man in black pulls the trigger, if the red on Eiji becomes more than just his hair, Oishi will lose much more than just a precious friend._

_Tezuka’s voice blazing through his ears to stop him,  as he invokes powers of the second in command, ordering the waves to destroy what endanger other half of his being._

_His own disgust in himself at staining the sea with blood, staining himself with killing another sentient being, even if the human endangered Eiji, his other half. Terror of assumption that now, Eiji will become scared of him, a murderer, that the link they painstakingly created since their first meeting will break under the pressure of hate and fear, killing both of them…_

_Warm hand on his cheek and his name spoken in serious yet not fearful voice._

*

‘Oishi.’ He blinked, as the finger poked him on the cheek. ‘If you’re thinking about that, stop it.’

Oishi forced-not really, though, with Eiji it was always easier to smile-his lips up, but redhead wasn’t fooled and frowned. ‘I knew I shouldn’t have shown you this.’

‘What? No!’ Oishi protested and cradled the sketchbook as if Eiji was going to take it away any moment now. Eiji’s frown softened, but he still reached over and pulled the sketchbook out of merman’s embrace- Oishi respected his ownership, no matter how possessive he posed as over it. Redhead turned the page, closing the offending picture before offering it back to his partner.

‘There’s more, and if I can say so, they’re better. I drew it only to get rid of the memory anyway.’

‘Even with your First Kiss?’ Oishi tried to tease, understanding he failed miserably upon looking at the next picture. Eiji grinned at him.

‘ _That_  is saved there, as you might have noticed.’

The merman on the next picture was poking from the water, shyly leaning towards the side of the face of a person kneeling just at the verge of water, angle easily hiding facial features of both of them. Few pages later, similar picture was drawn in pencil, this time not hiding the smiling faces looking at each other, foreheads touching, as the human lays on his stomach to be on the same level as his partner.

‘This one’s private, nya know. Nobody saw it before you.’

Oishi’s throat tightened, and he reached out to pull redhead towards himself without thinking. Eiji made one of his trademark sounds- in Oishi’s ears, at least- and leaned on his shoulder, his own hand sneaking behind merman’s back to rest on his hip.

‘I wish fullmoon was sooner.'


End file.
